Columns

From the category archives: Columns

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

His sky-blue eyes twinkled. Chuckles rumbled up from his generous tummy. "Oh come now, Lasha," said the kind-hearted rabbi. "Surely you would forgive a man for one little mistake?" I was taking a Mishna class – the study of Jewish law – and the topic of unfaithfulness in marriage came up. All in the class said yes they would forgive their partner if they strayed.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

We wanted it. Remember those brutal days of winter when we muttered to each other, "Edmonton has two seasons, winter and construction." As the tired but true saying goes, be careful what we wish for. Now the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Drought is withering crops in the farmers' fields. The homeless are suffering. A little known fact is the majority of the deaths of street people happen because of heat, not winter's cold.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Thunderous banging on my front door. It's going on 2 a.m. Tuesday. My dog Poppy flies off the bed, barking and growling. Me? I'm more angry than afraid. I call through the door, demanding in a not very nice voice, "Who is it?" "City Police," came back the ready answer.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

I once wondered why my mother kept a scrapbook of photos of the royal family. She would cut out the candid and posed shots from newspapers and magazines and paste them in big, blue scrapbooks. The scrapbooks were for her eyes and hands only. But I would catch glimpses of the pages when she would sit at the library table in the living room, gluepot and scissors at the ready, leafing through The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, and Life Magazine.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Television news cameras put us right in the thick of the recent riots in Baltimore's underbelly. Looting. Police pelted by rocks. A local pharmacy's shelves are picked clean and the building burnt. Demonstrators are wacked with batons. President Barack Obama calls the looters criminals, but he also said there have been "too many instances" where police appear to interact with people – mostly black, mostly poor – "in ways that raise troubling questions."

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Hearts sang when they heard Pope Francis proclaim 2015-16 extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy. Mercy, said the pope, is "the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sins." If ever this world needed mercy, it is now. Usually this word means someone who has power over another forgives, gives the person who has done an alleged wrong, a second, maybe even a third or fourth chance.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Be aware, dear reader. You might have to come to the defence of your doctor. Take a look at what is happening to Catholic, Christian and other doctors who are pro-life in Ontario. Their governing body, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, told them if a patient asks for a procedure they are unwilling to do because of their personal and/or religious ethics, they must refer the patient to someone they know will do the procedure.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

At times it is a Humpty Dumpty world. The news is too negative. Everything is changing in our personal world, neighbourhood, city, province, country, the entire globe. One can experience a loss of control. Religious leaders recognize society's growing isolation and caution us against selfishness, lack of community.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Silence. That is one powerful word. When there is not a vestige of a sound, brain cells dance the synapse of thoughts, whirling through one's mind, opening secret doors, letting answers and truth fly out. Sometimes it can be joyful. Sometimes one staggers with pain. Silence is hard to come by in this clattering world. But oh is it precious.

LASHA MORNINGSTAR

Friday afternoon in the northern Ontario town where I lived was pure anguish. The whistle from the canning factory would blast and the Catholic kids would come charging up the street to the fish and chips wagon. There would be some jostling and the chip lady would bark out a "Mind you manners now or you go to the back of the line."